Chapter One
Clang
The sound of naked steel clashing against the same had Devlin and the two other men with him running between the parked cars. Devlin was pretty sure the men hadn’t heard the sounds, but he did, and they trusted him enough to follow him blindly into battle. They were human—well at least the two with him were—but enlightened and highly trained hunters involved in a war few other mortals fathomed.
They fought soulless immortal creatures to save human lives.
The soulless, fallen angels banished to earth, stripped of emotion and charged with finding redemption, most called that bullshit. He did because most, too often, chose to prey on human emotions and destroy life. The soulless willingly turn blood vampire and emotional succubi. Feeding on blood and sex fueled by strong emotions to nourish the emptiness of their soulless existence. Eventually, their prey would give up their lives by force.
Too bad when the soulless were stripped of emotion they weren’t also stripped of all their powers and strength. As punishment for whatever crimes they’d committed as angels, God ripped both soul and emotion from them and banished them to earth with one chance of gaining redemption. Even the memory that they were once angels had been taken from them, until recently. But hunters provide a balance. Humans who are aware of the soulless, specially trained, who stand together to protect humanity against these unearthly, beautiful, beguiling parasites. Devlin and others hunt them and stop them the only way they can be stopped: by divesting them of their heads.
Devlin was thrilled at the knowledge he was about to send some of these fuckers into whatever passed for their hell. He slowed, narrowed his gaze, and scanned the area. The lights from several lampposts illuminated a wide section, making it appear as if it were the middle of the day. The men came to a stop in the large outdoor parking lot.
“Where?” Tony asked. “I don’t see anything.”
“It’s here,” Devlin responded.
The music resonating from inside the domed stadium behind them was somewhat muted, but the sold out concert inside The Forum raged in full swing. So no one saw them. Just rows upon rows of empty parked cars. But not quite deserted, and the reason the men stood there poised to fight.
Large gatherings of unsuspecting humans tended to attract the soulless. Looking to feed off both the positive and negative energies that places like concerts generated. Now only hunger drove them. An insatiable need to feel, the need to fill the hollowness inside with stolen emotions. Any emotion, self-inflicted or not. Mostly not. The soulless had a nasty habit of forcing negative emotions on unsuspecting humans.
There were a few who did no harm, those merely drained already existing negative harmful emotions from humans leaving them in a more stable and better condition. Then there were the others. The ones that thrived on negative emotions, the ones who deliberately fueled it, caused it. Then sucked their prey dry, feeding off those emotions by draining humans of blood and life energies until they were dead. The vampires of their kind.
Devlin was a hunter and he and others hunted these kinds of soulless. Problem was you usually couldn’t tell one kind from the other until they made a move, and sometimes by then, it could be too late.
A dissonant cord came from the right and as one, all three men pivoted and took off running between the cars in that direction. Coming upon a picture which had the hunters momentarily stunned. Fangs gleaming in the moonlight, a soulless one fought with a lone human woman. A silver sword about twenty inches from tip to handle and an inch wide sliced through the air aiming to kill. The moment the woman jumped back to avoid the swipe of the soulless blade to her ribs, Devlin realized she fought back with a short sword of her own. In horror, he watched as she was backed up against the hood of a low hardtop sports car. It hampered her movement and the soulless pressed his advantage. The tip of his blade tore through her leather jacket, piercing her shoulder.
“Hell no!” Devlin roared. He felt that prick in his soul. The coppery scent of her blood washed over his senses. He knew this woman. Snarling, he leaped the last few feet onto the hood of a car to gain momentum, then somersaulted up and over their heads. As he rotated, he raised his blade and swung it down in an arc. Before his feet hit the asphalt beside the woman, he’d taken the bastard’s head.
The body crumbled at his feet and the head rolled near the wheel of a car; he didn’t bother to look down at either. He didn’t need to see the pieces turn to ash as his heart thundered in anger against his breast, and he didn’t acknowledge the weird wind blowing against his hair, or watch it lift up the ashes of the soulless to spirit it away. To hell for all he cared. The only good thing about destroying a soulless creature was no body to get rid of. Even the man’s sword was gone. Nothing to show he ever existed. He turned and his gaze locked on the woman leaning against the hood of the car clutching her shoulder.
The scent of her blood was stronger now, inciting him to want to kill the bastard again. “What the hell are you doing here?” he growled, but there was no time for her to answer. Two more soulless rushed them from the shadows.
The other hunters moved to intercept one and Devlin took on the other, who seemed determined to get to the woman leaning on the car.
Over his dead body.
Rage infused Devlin’s normal calm. Twice in one night, the woman’s life was in danger. The soulless he fought raised his sword arm too high, leaving an opening, a mistake, and Devlin used it. With all his strength, he brought his blade down and chopped his arm off from the shoulder. Dark red blood gushed from the wound like an open faucet and his howl of pain shook the ground. The soulless dropped to his knees. Devlin raised his blade again to send the bastard to where he should have been sent in the first place: Hell.
“No! Stop! Don’t kill him.”
At the shouted words, Devlin’s blade halted mid-swing. Only years of well honed skills allowed him to do this. Still, his muscles trembled with the effort.
The plea in Evangeline’s voice stopped him. The other soulless, seeing he was outnumbered and losing against the well-trained hunters, scrambled across two cars and rushed into the night. The other hunters chased after him, but Devlin didn’t expect them to catch him. The bastards could move like the wind when they ran.
He turned to the woman, but kept his sword aimed at the male on the ground. “Are you all right?” he asked her.
“Yes. I’ll be fine. But please don’t kill him. Let him go.” Her gaze rested on the being beside them.
The creature on his knees raised his head. The man could have made a fortune from the exquisiteness of his features alone. Like all soulless, he was hauntingly beautiful, but he watched her with the dark dead eyes of a soulless one. Eyes no human could hope to look into and not become enthralled, a slave to their will, and a participant in their own demise. “You plead for me?” the male hissed.
“Yes,” Evangeline whispered without staring directly into his eyes.
Devlin kept a close watch on them both.
“Why? I would have killed you and gorged myself on your fear. Still would. Why would you spare me, let me go?” the soulless asked.
“Because you’re one of God’s creatures and you need to remember who and what you are,” she replied.
The fallen barked a laugh. Not an ounce of warmth in the sound. “Yes, I have heard the story, we were once angels banished to earth, but we are angels no more.” With the speed of his kind he surged to his feet, his remaining hand outstretched reaching for her throat.
Devlin stood ready for him, with no intention of letting him touch her. Moving faster than the soulless, Devlin cut off the bastard’s head.
The woman in front of him bowed her own.
Without missing a beat, he continued his questions. “You didn’t answer my question, Evangeline. What the hell are you doing here?” From one blink to the next, he picked up right where he’d left off, like the encounter with the soulless didn’t faze him—it didn’t. He knew killing bothered her, though.
“It’s been several months, and that’s how you greet me?” she asked, still not looking at him.
Months ago, back in New York when they’d first met, Evangeline found out he was a hunter and killing was what he did. She wanted nothing more to do with him. He’d tried to talk to her but she’d refused his calls, only dealing with him about Chronicler and hunter business. She was a Chronicler of the soulless and hunters, keeping records on both sides. Her reaction to what he did and not wanting to have anything to do with him beyond business, both saddened and angered him at the same time. Right now, he knew he shouldn’t yell at her. She’d had quite a scare, but dammit, she’d scared his shit when he saw her about to get her ass handed to the heavens on a silver platter.
Four months and four days since he’d last spoken to Evangeline. “That was your choice. You blocked my fucking account, blocked my calls and told me via text, you thought it best that I find someone else to consult with.” He snorted. “Even though hunter and Chroniclers now have an agreement. It means shit to you.” He was pissed and he let her know it.
“We have different beliefs.”
“Well, I believe you have no fucking business hanging out in places where you can get yourself killed.” Yelling at her was the last thing he wanted to do. He hadn’t been this close to her or spoken to her in months. He’d missed her so much. Missed their online talks. Then suddenly, it was all over. No not suddenly, it hadn’t been until he’d left New York for LA and she’d made it clear their once friendship was over that he realized how much she meant to him.
She straightened up and got right in his face. “That is not your call. What hunters do is my business,” she yelled right back. Turning her anger on him.
They’d met online, sharing a love for computers and accessing information through back doors; they were both hackers. They’d become gaming friends, but it wasn’t until they’d actually come face to face that they’d learned who and what else they each really were. Their people might have an understanding, but that didn’t mean their goals were the same. Hunters, like Devlin, wanted the soulless dead. Chroniclers like Evangeline and her aunts refused to pass judgment and condemn them for the hunt. Even though they were supposed to be neutral in this war between hunter and soulless, yet even that had been somewhat changed when the leader of the hunters took a soulless one as his lover. And she was now his wife.
Still, all Devlin wanted to do was take Eva into his arms. Kiss her. No. He wanted to bury himself so deeply inside her, you’d have to use a nuclear blast to pry him lose. But their relationship never got to that point and now it never would. She hated him and what he did.
Ever since he’d moved to LA, even before that, ever since she’d found out what he was. A hunter with a touch of soulless blood. She’d distanced herself from him. She couldn’t get past the fact that he was a hunter of soulless and she was a Chronicler of their lives. Sworn to neutrality between the war of soulless and hunter, but more than that, she didn’t believe in the killing he had to do.
“Look we’re never going to agree. But we’re damn well going to have to work together,” she continued.
“This will never work.” Devlin understood she believed the soulless could be saved. That the hunters were wrong to condemn them all without at least giving them a chance to show they were harmless to humans or redeemable. To her, that was the whole point of their banishment, a chance for redemption. Especially now, since they knew these creatures were once freaking angels. He sheathed his blade and raked his fingers through his hair.
She appeared shocked. “The agreement means a lot to me. Thalya and Samuel have proven they can be trusted.”
He snorted. This was an old argument between them. She liked to use his friend Samuel and his wife Thalya to prove her points. Samuel was a master hunter, the best they had, as well as a hybrid. His father had been soulless, his mother human. And Thalya had been soulless but found her redemption through Samuel’s love for her, and now had a soul. To Eva and the other Chroniclers, they were living proof the soulless could be saved.
Like Samuel, Devlin was a hybrid of sorts, his grandfather was soulless, and like Samuel’s father, regained his soul. “You and I both know those who regained their souls are few and far between. All of the soulless I’ve ever met, with the exception of Thalya, are nothing but deadly parasites feeding and encouraging the negative emotions of humans. They bring nothing but death. So I’ll be damned if I stand back and chat one up to determine which kind he is in the middle of a sword fight.” As far as he was concerned, if a soulless was a bloodsucker, they needed to be a dead one. A philosophy of life Eva couldn’t completely agree with.
“And what of your own grandparent and Samuel’s father? And there are others,” she countered.
Only the rise and fall of her shoulders and the sound of her soft tears caused Devlin to relent his off limits stance with her and take her into his arms. He knew she was in pain from her wound. He’d also promised Samuel and her aunts, the other Chroniclers, he’d watch out for her. Hard to do when the woman you wanted more than your cells needed oxygen hated you and everything you stood for. “There are exceptions, but you know by the time we can tell it would be too late. Your own records support that,” he argued.
Evangeline was the youngest but the first of the next generation of Chroniclers. He knew she was well aware of what most of them contained, more so than he did. She was in LA to set up a storefront for them there. She’d found a location and the work on the store would be finished in a few weeks. He should know since the contractor was a hunter. As far as the world was concerned, her family were rare book collectors who owned stores in the US, Canada, and other parts of the world. But they did a hell of a lot more than that.
“Were you following them or me?” She tried to push away from him but he couldn’t quite release her and merely looked down at her.
She’d been in LA for almost three months; he’d seen her when she first arrived at the airport, but she hadn’t known he was there, he’d kept his distance. Knowing she wanted nothing to do with him. The only reason she saw him now was because she’d been in trouble. Damn good thing he’d taken to tailing her, but his hunters had already been planning on hanging around the concert venue anyway, knowing soulless would show up there.
Devlin shrugged. “Yes, damned right I was following you.” The soulless were assembling in the area. It was why he’d been sent to oversee LA. Tonight proved it wasn’t safe for her here. He’d even watched over her at night a few times, making sure she got home safe. But always, he’d made sure she didn’t see him. He felt like a Peeping Tom at times, but couldn’t help himself.
“Th-thank you,” she stuttered and trembled slightly in his arms.
He’d even been present a week ago when she’d met another man. It still bit.
The man had bumped into her and she’d spilled coffee on his shirt. Devlin wasn’t sure if that bump was accidental or not. The man ended up buying her another cup and they sat in the coffee shop window talking for the next hour. Each second she sat with the stranger ripped another piece of his heart out of his chest. Like a masochist, he refused to leave and had continued to watch the couple. He kept telling himself her meeting someone, someone who didn’t kill for a living, was for the best. Like hell!
He just needed to sleep with her and give them both peace. Once, that’s all he needed to do, sleep with her once. But no, she didn’t want him. She’d rather have some clumsy fucker, but the guy had rubbed him the wrong way.
Just something off about him, but Devlin had never actually seen his face. The guy had worn dark shades but his profile showed he might have those strong perfect features like a soulless. Since he’d seen them together during the day, he didn’t think the guy was one though. Most soulless preferred the night because the light of day caused them pain. Still, it had been late afternoon so the sun wasn’t that high. Some soulless can stand a little sun. Devlin wasn’t going to ignore his instincts, even if they were born of jealousy.
Yet, Devlin had been the one to save her life tonight and she clung to him. He buried his face in her hair and her spicy apple scent enveloped him; a fragrance as close to heaven as he’d ever be. Holding her in his arms for the first time only emphasized how well they would fit together. Perfectly. Her curves fitted into him perfectly, like a missing puzzle piece and he would do anything to hold her again, and not just in comfort. Perhaps, it was time for him to step out of the shadows with her. No more cyber flirting, although she’d put a stop to that a long time ago. They needed to deal face to face.
“You didn’t have to follow me, but thank you,” she said again.
Devlin rubbed one hand up and down her back to soothe her, until finally she stopped shaking. She didn’t try to pull away from him again, instead she held on to him tighter. Like she didn’t want to let him go.
He wished.
The top of her head only came to his shoulder. Such a little thing, he always thought if he held her too close, like this, at six one and hundred ninety-seven pounds, he’d crush her. He didn’t.
Evangeline raised her heart shaped face to look at him. Her cranberry tinted lips set in her caramel colored skin enticed him to crush them against his mouth. As she met his gaze, he found himself leaning into those beautiful cool amber eyes. Overwhelmed by their depths, he pressed their bodies together even harder. Footsteps crushing against the asphalt had him spinning around, blade raised to put himself between her and any danger. He recognized his returning hunters and relaxed his stance.
“Sorry, Dev,” Jason said the taller of the two hunters. “He got away.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Devlin responded, as he stepped forward and patted Jason on his shoulder. “I’m sure we’ll run into him again.”
His men smiled. Tony the younger of the two had followed him down from Canada where he’d led a group. When he’d called and told the other hunters back home in Canada he wouldn’t be returning anytime soon, he turned the operation over to his first in command. Tony volunteered to come help him clean up LA. The group of hunters here in LA were in disarray as their leader, Chris had turned traitor. Selling out his own people to the soulless while helping them when they tried to kill Samuel, Thalya, and a few other hunters in LA. Chris had become even more wanted than the soulless when he’d turned against his own people.
Chris had set up Samuel and when the soulless had failed to kill him, Chris had tried to kill Samuel himself. Now, the man had become the hunted, the first human hunter in their long history. Every legitimate hunter in the world was out to get Chris’ head, and he hid some place in LA, feeding some of his own people to the soulless. Two hunters had been killed there in the last few months because of the traitor.
Devlin was convinced Chris was protected by soulless and a handful of misguided hunters. At least at first, those who Chris managed to somehow convince Samuel was the one working with the soulless. The bastard played up Samuel’s part soulless heritage to those who didn’t really know him well. Painting Samuel as the enemy and not to be trusted. Lies, all lies. The ones who followed Chris ended up as prey for the soulless, and now with the recent hunter deaths all knew it. But Chris had gone off the deep end and Devlin suspected he allowed the soulless to feed off him, ensuring his madness and hatred against Samuel continued. The last time anyone had seen the man, Devlin had been told he looked at least twenty years younger.
“Why don’t you guys call it a night,” he said to his men. “I’ll see that Evangeline here gets home.”
“Later,” the men said together.
“Night, ma’am,” Tony said, while the other nodded in her direction.
She smiled at them both. “Good night, gentlemen, and thank you.”
They watched the men walk off into the night. When they were out of sight, Devlin stared up at the sky. Hard to see many stars in LA, and tonight was no different. Unlike the skies over British Colombia, Canada, where he used to live. Yet, when he turned to the woman beside him, somehow not having stars over his head didn’t seem like a big deal at all. Nor the fact he knew he wouldn’t be returning to Canada anytime soon if ever.
“Come on,” he said, taking the short sword from her and returning it to the sheath peeking out from the collar at her nape. “I’ll go home with you and take a look at that arm.”
Eva sighed. “I’m fine, Dev. Really, it’s just a scratch and you know I heal fast. You’ve spent enough time now reading about the Chroniclers to know this.”
All true. Ever since Samuel and Thalya got married and had been granted access to some of the Chronicles, Devlin had been allowed to read them too. As part soulless, some of the information pertained to him. There were references to his grandparents he enjoyed reading about. Plus, Eva’s aunt Wilhelmina, Willy as he liked to call her, was one of the seven Chroniclers who recorded their deeds and kept the records in the U.S. She interviewed him about his own life and abilities, even though as a hunter, he’d already had a small part in their records. After they found out more about his unique heritage, he now had a full page. There were gaps in their records.
Because he’d been so well hidden, they had been unaware his mother had survived the massacre of his grandparents. He grinned at Eva’s exasperation with him. That could be good or bad, he wasn’t quite sure which yet. “Doesn’t matter,” he said, returning his attention to the woman never far from his thoughts. “I know he cut you and I’ll help clean you up; now let’s go so I can take a look at the wound.”
She turned to face him. “Thank you for helping me tonight, and for at least making an attempt not to kill that soulless.”
He raised one eyebrow at her. “So you acknowledge I did try.”
She sighed. “Yes, yes you did.”
They had been friends once, perhaps they could have been more than friends, maybe, maybe they still could. He had to try. From the beginning, he realized Eva was the kind of woman that came around once in a lifetime, even a very long one. He held out his hand to her, testing her to see if she would take it. When she didn’t hesitate and entwined their fingers, his chest expanded, the skin around his bones relaxed, and he felt like he just might fly. Instead, he smiled at her and walked in the direction of her car.